


Dinner Date, The

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-08-28
Updated: 2003-08-28
Packaged: 2019-05-15 19:09:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14796284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of theWest Wing Fanfiction Central, a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in theannouncement post.





	Dinner Date, The

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

"Hey, so the kids were cute the other day," I tossed out to my guest. Toby was reading a position memo that I had Donna draft and the silence was making me edgy. I had given her just the briefest direction and I was curious to see how she did. Knowing Toby like I did, I knew he wouldn't hold back.

"My kids are not cute. My kids are special and unique and far more than cute," Toby said without looking up from the pages.

"Donna and I were thinking we could baby sit sometime. Give you and Andi a break."

This had him lifting his head. He was staring at me intently, which might have unnerved anyone else, but this was Toby and his stares stopped intimidating me about six years ago. Maybe five.

"You... and Donna want to baby sit."

"Yeah."

"The two of you."

"Yeah." Why was he making such a big deal about that? "Two kids, two people and one of them should know something about babies.

He seemed to accept this, but shook his head anyway. "Andi is in lock down maternal mode. It's highly unlikely she would be willing to turn over care to anyone. I have trouble sneaking in a diaper change."

"It's just a stage they go through," I said wisely although in reality I had no idea. I didn't have any friends who had kids. I had friends who were kids at heart, but I didn't think that counted.

"This is good," Toby said as he stood. He pointed to two sections and said, "Change this, and clean this up. It sounds too wishy washy."

I took the paper and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Donna wrote that?"

I looked at him. "How did you know?" I hadn't said anything thinking I would fall on the sword if I needed to protect her. I could be brave like that at times.

"I know your writing. It's usually too wordy. This was tighter. You let her do this?"

"I have her direction."

Toby nodded. "It's good."

"I thought so too. Tell Andi, you know about the baby sitting thing."

"I will."

He left and as expected Donna was quickly standing in my door. Her thumbnail was caught between her teeth, which she instantly extracted.

It was time to play with her a little. With her mind, that is. A sighed heavily and struggled for gravity.

"Well?"

"You know Toby," I began and instantly she collapsed like a fold away chair into my guest chair.

"I knew it. You shouldn't have let me do it. What were you thinking? That was a position paper, Josh. On our ... you know... position. It can't be poorly written, it can't be unclear. This memo carries with it the weight of the White House..."

"And Toby said it was good." She was quickly becoming too flustered so I had to let her off the hook early. I think I've gotten kinder in my old age.

"Good?"

"Good," I repeated. "Not great," I added just to keep her ego in check. "Clean up this and don't be so wishy washy here." I circled the two sections Toby had pointed out.

That's when I got the Donna smile. That soft almost shy smile that she couldn't help, but tried to hide so no one could see how ultimately pleased she was with herself. It made me smile in return.

"Good?"

"But not great," I supplied.

She turned and was about to leave, when Toby remerged in our doorway. I saw Donna's face fall as she irrationally waited for him to retract his previous statements. She could be such a ninny like that. At times it amazed me that someone who in one moment could be going toe to toe with me, in another could lack the most basic self-confidence.

If I pushed her she would say it's because she didn't finish college. But I think there was more to it than that.

"I talked to Andi about the thing."

Donna turned her head and glanced at me.

"Baby sitting."

"She needs to ... meet with both of you first. Especially Donna, who will be the primary caregiver."

"Toby, Andi knows me," Donna said evidently confused.

"She knows you as Josh's assistant, she doesn't know you in a social situation. Apparently this is a critical distinction. Please don't ask me to elaborate."

This was getting weird and I was getting slightly nervous. "Are we going to need to take tests," I wanted to know. "Because really..."

"I want to take her to dinner," Toby interrupted stiffly. "I want to talk to her alone. We still need to talk. About things."

Donna looked back again at me and nodded.

"Okay. We'll drop by some night..."

"Tomorrow. At eight thirty would be fine. We're having chicken. Is chicken all right?"

"Chicken is great," Donna smiled.

He was gone and quiet descended. Donna had her arms folded over her breasts and had a contemplative expression on her face.

"Note to staff: parenthood makes people nutty."

"Josh do you realize what just happened?"

I hated questions like that. One the surface they seemed so obvious, but there was always more to them. In matters of politics this was never an issue for me. I always understood the nuances. In personal matters, they tended to elude me.

"What?"

"Toby is having us as a couple over to his house. It's a dinner date."

"It's not a date," I assured her because I now understood the crux of her nervousness. "It's Andi having us over to grill us, well mostly you because she knows I don't know anything about kids, in order to ensure the wellbeing of her offspring."

"It's a date."

It was a date. "I thought we talked about this," I said carefully thinking that us going on a date and Toby accepting the idea of the two of us on a date was not necessarily a bad thing.

"We talked about us not dating other people. We didn't talk about us dating."

"That's not the same thing?"

She was shaking her head in a way as if to suggest that I was a moron. "No. And can I just say for the record that how you managed to hold on to a girlfriend for..."

"Eight months. It was sort of a record for me."

"...is truly a feat."

I smiled somewhat smugly. "I know."

She smiled back then as I think she came to the realization that I was who I was and I wasn't going to change. "Josh..."

"I wasn't ready for the dating talk then," I said "I like to take things in steps."

"You like to take things in millimeters," she corrected me.

"True. Hey, isn't that funny. Toby and Andi need to talk, we need talk. It could be a whole fun filled night of talking."

"You're making jokes."

"About all the talking. Yes."

"You're a child."

"Self-admitted."

She paused for a minute. "What time are you picking me up?"

"That's a joke, right? He said 8:30. We're leaving from here."

"Josh, it's a dinner date. I have to get ready. I have to pick something up for our hosts."

And this ladies and gentlemen is exactly the reason why you don't ever ever ever want to date your assistant. I refrained from saying that though.

 

"Do I look all right?" I understand it was the second time I asked him, but I was about to keel over with nervousness and a woman in that kind of condition couldn't be held accountable for her actions or statements.

"You look fine."

Just the kind of thing a woman wanted to be told on the first date. Because this was in fact our very first legitimate date. There had been some lunches where business was not always discussed since the kiss, but this was the first time I could actually put a label to it. It was a dinner date. A couples dinner. A social engagement between two couples.

And we were doing this for the very first time in front of Toby. Was I the only one who found the logic of that somewhat failing?

Josh parked the car in front of what was the most beautiful home I think I had ever seen. Toby had shown us all pictures, but it didn't compare to the real thing. The sweeping lawn. The stature and grace of the stone house. It was a home.

I grew up in a condo development after my dad lost his job. I always dreamt of a home like this.

"Can you believe the size of this thing?" Josh asked with a dropped jaw.

"It's beautiful."

"It's huge. Who is he going to get to cut the lawn? Seriously can you see Toby cutting this lawn? He'd need one of those sit down tractors."

Josh was raining on my house parade with reality. "He could get a kid from the neighborhood."

"Hello, Donna, look at this neighborhood. These kids are rich. They're not going to take a twenty to do the lawn. No, he is so screwed with this. He's going to need a lawn service..."

I stopped in my tracks, my housewarming plant tucked firmly in my arms. "Josh, can we forget about the lawn. I'm a little nervous here."

His face scrunched up in the way his face scrunches up when he doesn't understand something and it made me want to slap him.

"Donna this is dinner."

"Josh this is..." I wasn't really sure what it was. But it felt important. "What do we do if they ask us questions?" I wanted to know. Let's see what his grand plan for that was.

"Answer them."

"I meant questions about us."

"There is no us."

And this ladies and gentlemen is why you should never ever ever date your boss. Or a jerk. A boss or a jerk.

"There is no us...yet," he quickly corrected.

Too late.

"We're pre-us, therefore all questions can be answered honestly."

Pre-us. I ran through a few possible questions.

Question: Are you dating? Dat-ing implied many this was technically our first. Answer: No, why would you even ask that?

Question: Are and Josh... you know.... This might come from Andi, definitely not Toby: Answer: Of course not. And a little indignation here wouldn't hurt.

Question: Are you both insane? This was likely to come from Toby when he realized that pre-us was a precursor to us. At least I was pretty sure it was. Answer: Yes.

I kept walking with my plant and Josh jogged up behind me. We'd purposefully gone casual, him in kakis and a t-shirt, me in Capri's and a sleeveless blouse just to make the evening as low key as possible. Toby answered the door and I smiled.

Probably way too big.

"I have a plant. I didn't want to bring wine. I didn't know if Andi was still nursing so I didn't bring wine. I didn't bring chocolate either because I heard that chocolate is bad for women who are nursing."

Toby was staring at me with this usual intimidating face. I wanted to tell him that stopped scaring me like three years ago.

Maybe two.

"A plant is nice."

I thought so.

"Come in."

The house was as impressive on the inside as it was on the outside. Andi had good taste. Soft blues, textured paints. Comfortable furniture.

Toby took my plant and escorted us back into the back of the house which was a kitchen family area. Andi was at the counter pouring dip in the center of a vegetable tray.

"Hello. This is exciting. You two are my first guests."

"Donna brought a plant," Toby set it down on a side bench near the back door. I didn't think it was the nicest place for the fern, but I kept my own council on that one.

"Pour them a drink."

"Beer," Josh announced.

Toby glanced at me. Oh gosh. There would be drinking and dinner. This was such a date.

"I have red wine," Andi said.

"I'll take red wine."

"You get a headache with red wine," Josh reminded me.

Smooth move I thought. Way to show them how well we know each other. It was okay though I covered quickly. "That's white wine."

"No, it's red. Remember the Daughters dinner?"

"No," I said patiently. We were standing in the middle of the kitchen and there was no table nearby to hide a delicate kick. "That was because I drank too much in response to the ridiculous assignment you gave in which I was mortified."

Toby cover a laugh with a cough.

"Where are the babies?" See how I did that? I'm keeping the focus on the children and off me and Josh.

"I already put them down. After three months I was ready for some adult time," Andi mentioned. "Come on, I set everything up outside."

And that was how it went. We talked, we laughed, we ate. Andi did in fact give us a test, which I passed with flying colors. I'm very good with children. We had wine and mocked some of the new interns. We had dessert and made fun of most Republicans.

It was all going so beautifully. Until I was helping Andi with the desert dishes and Toby took Josh to check out the neighborhood.

"So you and Josh..."

Answer truthfully. Answer truthfully. "Me and Josh?"

"You know. When did it happen?" She was washing dishes. "I told Toby that he had something for you during the campaign, but Toby said Josh was dating Mandy. Do you remember her?"

"Not likely to forget." Mandy was pushy and direct. But in all honesty I could never see her pulling what Amy pulled on me a few months ago. There would have been no subtlety. She would have pushed me against a door and demanded outright if I was in love with Josh. And she wouldn't have let me go until she had an answer. It was hard for me to admit but in the grand scheme of things I think I liked Mandy better.

This in response to the fact that the First Lady had actually talked Amy out of leaving for a while and that her engagement to her on again/off again congressman fiancé was off again.

I really didn't like Amy.

"Seriously, when did it happen?"

Redirect, my brain shouted. "What about you and Toby. Set a date?"

I watched her eyes open wide and knew I had just insulted my host. There were countries where they beheaded you for that.

"Got it."

"I didn't mean... that was so rude. I'm sorry. I..." didn't have any more words left to stumble through this apology.

Andi merely laughed. "No, I was being rude. I guess after playing wife with Toby for a while that I began to think of myself as married. And married people really have no qualms about digging into single people's personal lives, you ever notice that?"

I nodded. "I am sorry. And there is really nothing between me and ..."

"Stop," she said in a voice that I bet even Toby listened to. "I'm withdrawing the question. I wouldn't want you to lie under oath. But there's no reason not to plea the Fifth."

"I love the Fifth."

"It's always been my personal favorite."

The two men returned and Josh checked his watch. His sign for let's go. I knew it well. We smiled said goodbyes. I told Andi to kiss the babies.

Josh didn't speak to me until we were in the car.

"Go ahead," I prompted.

"He wants to know if we're sleeping together," Josh blurted out obviously completely astounded. "Can you believe that? He just came right out and asked."

"Did he seem upset?" Did the words scandal and president at any time leave his lips? This was the really important question.

Josh considered that. "No."

"No?"

"Definitely no. He seemed serious, but not upset."

"Toby is always serious so that's not really an indicator. I think this is good."

"Good?"

I looked at him then. "But not great."

I didn't want to get him all excited too soon.

The End.


End file.
